1463/Null has a Mouse(r) Problem

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Null has a Mouse(r) Problem
Date of Scene: 30 April 2020
Location: Null Group Facility
Synopsis: MOUSERs march on Null Group and are stopped by a ragtag group of heroes. Is this the birth of a new super hero squad? Prooooooooobably not.
Cast of Characters: Michelangelo, Peter Parker, Leena Danvers, Artemis




Michelangelo has posed:
Early evening has come to New York, and with the dipping sun, most of the employees for the Null Group at this location are going home for the day. A large sign outsid the building advertises 'NULL COLA - NULL BLUE COMING SOON!', with a few delivery trucks parked on the side of the building at the loading docks. A fence surrounds the building and from all appearances, it seems pretty normal.

Outside of the building, at the fence, a guard is on patrol, walking around the perimeter when he hears a metallic noise. Taking out a flashlight, he heads to where he hears the noise, and shines his light on something metal. "Who goes there?"

The metallic creature, looking like a large beak on an orb body turns around and opens his mouth really wide -- tchk!

Pan out, and then back to the fence, where a security alarm is going off. With no answer from the security station, Null Group is sending someone to check out the situation, while a silent alarm was triggered, alerting the police - but they have no units nearby at the moment.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is heading towards the BUGLE with a lot of photos to sell. Even though he has the sweet job at the Ironworks, he still needs to show Spidey's best side to the public.

He's about a half-mile away when the alert comes in, a pointer appearing over the Null Corp building with the alert SILENT ALARM TRIGGERED AT 5:37 PM EST.

Spider-Man sighed. It could mean more good pictures, but he wcould be working a little late...oh, well.

He swings on the webline a little bit longer to adjust his direction, and then he is heading straight to Null Corp.

Leena Danvers has posed:
An unmarked black box truck pulls up in front of the building, across the street from the Null Group warehouse. Inside of it, Ballista checks a few pieces of gear, "Still no word from security team? We'll have to assume they've either been killed or otherwise incapacitated." She says to the driver, who leans back towards the back of the truck, "Boss wants you to please /try/ not to destroy the place. This is our property, after all."

Ballista lifts her rifle, and racks a round into the chamber, "Hey don't worry. I know how to keep damage to a minimum. I just usually choose not to." The back door to the truck opens up, and the raptor drops down to ground level, the suspension of the truck visibly lifting once she's no longer onboard, "If the cops do bother to show up, keep them outside. Last thing I need is some flatfoot getting in my way."

She slides her visor down and brings her HUD up, getting the layout of the building as she crosses the street and badges her way through the gate, stepping inside of the property.

Artemis has posed:
Frowning as she looks across the way toward the Themysciran Embassy, she wasn't necessarily ready to enter there yet but she knew they might have information about the object she seeks. It is almost enough to make her approach them only to hear something in the distance. An alarm. She squints in that direction and then figures that is as good an excuse as any not to enter there. She pulls the cloak she is wearing about her armored gear and leaps from the building she is on over ot the building next to it and takes off at a sprint.

She is far faster than any normal person, leaping from roof top to rooftop with her cloak billowing out behind her. She finally comes across this Null Corp place and looks down into it from above. She can see over the fence easily enough and squints at the strange creature below. She suddenly leaps from her spot up high and mid-flight she twists in air before she attempts to come down feet first on one of those creatures, smashing into it with enough force to likely leave an impression in the ground underneath.

Michelangelo has posed:
There's no security guard to be found, the guard shack is empty, appearing to be abandoned. Ballista's handlers acknowledge her with a nod. "We'll keep them at bay." comes the response.

Outside, as Spider-Man comes thwipping over, inbetween the lights he can see several figures moving. Each of them is about three feet tall with what looks like a sensor on top of their heads, and a pair of bipedal legs with a large mouth/beak combonation. If he does a look up on the design, he'll get a hit on a patent for a 'Minefield Ordinance Unarming System Enhanced Robots' that are used in the Slavic States to clear minefields there, the patent belonging to a Doctor Baxter Stockwell.

Sweeping around the corner, a group of MOUSERs start to pile on top of each other in attempt to chew through a door, their metallic jaws making short work of the door so that they may gain entry.

However, an alert goes up from the MOUSERs as they see Ballista approaching. A large gather of them, at least two dozen in number start to swarm towards her, tchking the jaws loudly as they advance. While a shot or two can easily take one out, there are just so many of them!

Another group are trying to make their way around the building, just as Artemis slams into them, utterly crushing one, and throwing several more up into the air.

Behind her, one of the mousers was just about to leap at the Amazonian when there's a rush of air behind her, and a compact, but solid form lashes out from behind- the twirl of a nunchuka, the crack of wood on metal, and a laugh as whatever it is ducks into the shadows about. "That's one for me!" the voice announces. "But like six for you!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Okay. There's...an AWFUL lot of little machines that are trying to eat the wall. A dinosaur in riot gear is advancing on the automatic ankle-biters. And an Amazonian woman just...jumped right into the fray, landing on the MOUSER like Super Mario on a Koopa Trooper.

...Dangit, time to recalibrate the Weird Meter again!

He lands on a light pole above the fray, assesses the situation, and then starts shooting.

MOUSERS at the wall are suddenly covered in sticky webbing. A few are hit with weblines, and then swung around to bash them into other MOUSERs.

Leena Danvers has posed:
    he raptor spots the multiple robots, her HUD lighting up as it picks up multiple signatures, "Well, that's new." She plants her back foot, and raises her rifle. She's learned one thing from her training, not to negotiate with robots. They generally don't react well to it.

She pulls the trigger, squeezing off a pair of rounds into the closest one of those MOUSERs, swapping targets quick, though starting to back off as they approach her. Last thing she needs to do is let herself get surrounded and overwhelmed.

Artemis has posed:
Artemis looks back with a blink, not quite following the man or thing that just helped her. She squints into the shadows, staring in the direction of the voice before she calls out, "What are these things? What is going on here?" She then looks over at a mouser that is approaching her and with lightning speed she'll attempt to snatch it up by denting the metal head with her fingers as she lifts, holding it out away from her. She stares at it briefly when another attempts to bite her. She steps back and then notes another, and another.

She is starting to back up, especially after the second one was able to rip into her armor with those nasty teeth before she snatched her leg away. With a heave, she throws the one she picked up into the group only to have more come out, "I do not know what this is about but..." She holds out a hand, "Mistress, to me." She says calmlly and a moment later, with a burst of wind and sound, an axe easily as tall as she is with a head on it that is as wide as her torso simply appears in her hand. She then whips the axe back and sweeps an arcing attack in a cleave before her, "Who can tell me what we are dealing with?"

Her eyes focusing briefly on the raptor woman before looking up to Spider-Man...then just blinking slowly. What /is/ she dealing with...

Michelangelo has posed:
It's about to get weirder. As Spider-Man manages to web up a few of the MOUSERs, they start to chew through the webbing itself, metal jaws chomping down forcefully to snap the strands that bind them - as other MOUSERs are smashed into each other. Metal slams into metal, just as gun blasts start to sound off, the rifle fire from Ballista bound to draw attention, even as more MOUSERs start to work on their way to try to surround Artemis, just before she can summon Mistress.

The wide swipe of the axe takes out several of the MOUSER units, cleaving them in twain, the metal monstrosities falling apart as they are cut in half.

"I dunno, lady, but you're dealing with them really awesomely!" comes the voice from the darkness. He sounds... young. Way too young to be out here. There's a grunt and scattering noise, before a crunch, and another MOUSER comes fliying out. "Think I saw some more on the other side of the -- wait a minute! Is that a dinobabe in armor?!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Wait...the dinosaur is a woman? *Great. Take me now, Lord, I've assumed the gender of a carnivore.*

Okay...try and handle this objectively. Which means grabbing one of the MOUSERs first.
Spider-Man tags a MOUSER with a webline and pulls it up, grasping it along the back and holding it away from him as he takes a picture of the MOUSER and runs a Google search. MOUSER. Designed by Baxter Stockwell. Running autnomously, or under control? Time to find out.

Spider-Man looks for a control panel to pull free to get a look at the thing's innards.

Leena Danvers has posed:
To be fair it's not like Ballista makes it easy to tell her gender. She'd classify her gender as 'badass' anyway so she's not the best one to ask.

The raptor snarls when she realizes her rifle isn't going to be able to do much, even if they go down after a couple of shots, there's so many of them that she may not have enough ammo, "I wonder if a flamethrower would work." She growls out. One of the mousers gets snatched up into the air via a web before she can shoot it, and she looks up at Spider-Man, "Well well, New York's hometown hero has come to save the day."

She's annoyed that superheroes are sticking their nose into Null business, but that's the least of her problems right now. Assuming she can keep Spidey outside and not let him into the building proper. She hauls back and stomps on one of the mousers, as another tries to chew through her leg armor, only to catch the scythe claw from her other foot in the big metal skull, "These things have no sense of self preservation, do they?!"

Artemis has posed:
A blink over at the shadows and she squints there again as she shakes her head and looks up toward Spider-Man even as she kicks a mouser away before she swipes her axe out again to knock a few away, "I do not think that is their point!" She calls out and hten slams her axe down into another, cutting it in two before she whips it back up, "They are made to swarm." She then leaps up into the air, going forward and whips her axe back before slamming it down into a group.

"What is the point of this? What is this place?" She looks up to Ballista, "Do you know why these things are here?" She then looks up to Spider-Man, questioning him with a look.

Michelangelo has posed:
The little murder machine kicks and bites at Spider-Man as it's reeled up, but the webslinger has it in a position that it can't get around to bite him at. Thankfully! On the top of the head is a panel with a light. Ripping it away reveals the control mechanics within. Inside the mouser is a small screen - it's currently flashing 'AUTO'.

Artemis is right, they are made to swarm, and that is what they are trying to do at the moment. With Ballista running low on ammo, and Artemis swinging, it's becoming a hand to hand brawl.

Dropping into the middle of that is a new form, it comes in via skateboard.

Leaping from the docks, Michelangelo slams into a pile of MOUSERs that were benhind Artemis. "Sorry little robo dudes, I saw her first!" he calls out as he swings around his nunchkas to strike at another robot -- the bipedal turtle striking a pose! Even if he is only half of Artemis' height.

And looks like a teenager.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man pulls out a toolkit from his backpack, going to work on the captured MOUSER. There has to be a way to shut these things down. All machines have an off switch. He just has to figure out how to do it, and how to broadcast it.

"They're set to Automatic. I'm trying to work out how to send a shutdown command to the rest of them!" he calls out as he continues to work.

Leena Danvers has posed:
"You do that, I'll keep them off of you!" Ballista yells up at Spider-Man, before turning to look at Artemis, "It's a Null Group warehouse, as far as I know all they store in there is soda!" That's a lie and she knows it, but she's not going to tell this random hero there's an advanced robotics research facility under the soda storage warehouse where they're probably working on death rays or something.

When Mikey makes his appearance, Ballista stops and watches him, "Another one? Jesus." How many freaking turtles are there? She's run into too many already. Null really needs to figure out where all these other mutants are coming from. Bigger things to worry about right now though.

She slams two of the MOUSERs together, and then pulls out her baton, which crackles with electricity as she begins to swing it at the robots, trying to smash and shock them at the same time, even as they start to tear apart her armor from the numerous bites.

Artemis has posed:
A quick blink and she stares for a moment at the turtle that just appeared and then she turns quickly and whips her axe around, this time letting it go. The thing flies like a throwing axe but as it goes, it can easily tear through a wave of these things before embedding in a wall. She then reaches out with her hand and once more then axe simply reappears in her hand. "What even is happening in this world?" She then looks to Ballista again before looking up to Spider-Man before looking back at the incoming mousers. She was bleeding from the leg but already the wound has stopped bleeding.

"I do not know who or what you are but let us keeping fighting until this strange man in his pajamas is able to stop these monsters." She then looks back, "You, turtle man and you lizard woman. Let us see which comes first. These monsters destruction or Pajama Man's work." She smirks and then races forward, her left hand producing a sword from seemingly no where as she continues her work.

Michelangelo has posed:
When Artemis throws the Mistress in his direction, Michelangelo eeeeeep and 'BWIP!' his head disappears.

Blinking eyes peer up out of the shell hole. "Heheh! That was a close one!" he announces as his head *pops* back out.

Spider-Man can recognize someone as tech savvy as he is - while this Baxter Stockman may not be of Tony Stark level, he clearly has some skill. It's going to take a few moments for him to break the code and send the shut down signal.

Ballista's comment draws his attention. "But are we all the same turtle or just the same turtle in a different masks?" he asks her, trying to be all mysterious. "You don't look like you fell down a sewer!" he points out to Ballista while his nunchuk spins around to strike a mouser, before he notices a group of them and he gets an idea.

Backing up to Artemis, he calls out to her. "Throw me at 'em!"

And if Artemis picks him up -- *BWEEOOP* He pulls is arms and legs and inside of his shell, becoming a 200 pound bowling ball.

Peter Parker has posed:
Okayyyy...there's the EPROM. He uses the cracked tablet to pull the code, peering at it. Where's the White Rabbit, the variable he needs to switch? Okay, run through the primary code, look for the subroutine that handles control...

"Keep them off me for a few second more..." He says loudly enough for Artemis to hear. Find the code, then trigger the auto-update to send the code to the nearest MOUSERs, update with the shutdown, then broadcast THAT update to THEIR nearest MOUSERs...

Where are you, you scummy variable...?

Leena Danvers has posed:
Ballista decides to get out of the way before Artemis throws the turtle like a cannonball. She likes destruction but not when it's directed her way, "How's it going up there, Spider?!" She yells up at Spidey, trying to get some kind of update other than 'A few minutes'.

She brings one hand up to the side of her head, and transmits to her driver outside, <Any idea on the cops yet? We're dealing wit a ton of weird bitey robots and they'll all die if they come in here!>

Artemis has posed:
A blink as she looks back to see the turtle eagerly asking to be thrown. She flips the axe up into the air and then the sword vanishes from her hand. A moment later, Mistress slams into the ground through one of the mousers as she grabs up Mikey and blinks as he vanishes. She stares for a moment and then shakes her had, "If you wish, small turlte man." And she spins around once before throwing him right into the largest concentration of the creatures with an oomph. Her strength makes it so he flies pretty darn fast though she did hold back...mainly because she wasn't sure if he could take a full Amazonian throw and she isn't sure the building or surroundings could either.

Michelangelo has posed:
"WOOOOHOOO!" Michelangelo, more than happy to go on this ride. He spins, skipping on thr ground. He crashes into the MOUSERs, throwing them around like so many bowling pins, before he uhtohs. Smacking into the side of the truck, he ricochets, crashing through another set of MOUSERs, before he finally ping pongs around the parking lot before crashing into the fence.

Head, arms and legs pop back out, but Mikey is upside down. "Wow, what a ride. Can we do it again?"

Spider-Man in the meantime, finally gets into the code. There's a kill code in there, should be fairly easy for him to crack.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man smiles as he finds the White Rabbit. He rewrites the code, instructing the MOUSER he has to send the code to all the MOUSERs in range to copy the code to other MOUSERs and then to execute the code to shut down.

"I am working off of your own design, Baxie, and I am STILL smarter than YOU."

With one press of the button, he executes the kill command.

Leena Danvers has posed:
The raptor watches Mikey go flying through the air, "Gotta admit, it's effective." She files that away for next time she winds up fighting with some of the turtles, and then swats another MOUSER off of herself, "Next time I'm bringing a flamethrower that can generate enough heat to melt these little bastards!" She growls out, though hearing Spidey send the kill command, she jumps up onto one of the delivery trucks in case they explode or something.

Artemis has posed:
A blink as she watches him go and then she hmms, "Impressive." She states simply enough and then looks over at Ballista as she leaps up and she tilts her head before she pulls Mistress up and looks up to Spidey and then back to the creatures before her. She is prepared for them if need be but is waiting to see if this Pajama wearing hero was effective.

Michelangelo has posed:
Just as one of the MOUSERs was about to leap at Artemis, it suddenly goes dark and crashes to the ground. All over the yard, the remaining MOUSERs shut down and collapse in on themselves, looking like a roosting chicken. There was only about a dozen of them left that were functioning. The rest are shredded, shot, webbed, or chucked to pieces.

With that, a silence falls over the battlefield. "Duddddde." Michelanglo laments from where he is. "I was totally teamed up with Spider-Man and got distracted by Babeizon." he comments from where he is as he spins around to get back to his feet. Splinter's gonna make him do so much cleaning for being caught not being stealthy.

"That was fun, guys!" he offers cheerfully. "Let's not do it again sometime!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man saves his copy of the code to the database. You never know when you might need it again.

He drops to the street, looking around. "Well...I'm pretty sure I've never met any of you before, and believe me...I would remember it if I did."

He puts the toolkit away, drops the dead MOUSER at his feet, and raises his right hand in greeting. "Name's Spider-Man. I also go by Spidey, or Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man if you want to say it proper, or even Webhead works. There are others, but I'd rather not hear any of you call me by THOSE names."

Leena Danvers has posed:
"I know you. It's hard not to if you've lived in this city for any length of time." Ballista replies to Spidey, as she picks up one of the MOUSERs. Null's robotics division will want to get a look at this, "So you shut them all down remotely. That's good. Unless more show up, which is bad." She tosses the one she's holding in a pouch on her gear, "Well, thank you for your help. Saved me a lot of trouble." And probably kept her from being slowly eaten.

Artemis has posed:
Artemis holds out Mistress for a moment and upon letting go of it, the axe is simply gone. She looks then to Michelangelo first and looks him over briefly before saying, "This is not what I'd have expected when I came to this New York City." SHe states simply enough and then whips her head a little to cause her hair to spill across her back. She then lets out a breath, "And I am not Babeizon. I am named Artemis." And she then looks to Spider-Man and hmms, "I will stick to Spidey. It seems short and to the point." She nods her head, "Much easier in battle."

Finally she looks over to Ballista and nods to her, "You fight well." And she then starts to move off, "Now, this not what I came here for." And she simply starts away toward the direction she came, getting ready to leap the fence rather easily...and possibly up to a roof top.

Michelangelo has posed:
"Artemis..." Michelangelo sighs for a moment. She may not be Supergirl, but wowzers. "Uh. So you got this handled, right?" Mikey asks before the turtle is backing towards a nearby sewer pipe. "Thanks for tha awesome team-up, can't be a hero in New York without one, right?" he asks the others. Oh right, name, name. "You can call me... the Turtle Titan!"

Yeah, that'll work!

And with that, he's slipping into the sewers in retreat.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey looks to Artemis, one eyebrow raised. The eye-lens actually reflects that. "What WERE you looking for, Artemis, if I may be so bold?"

He remembered Artemis = Greek, Diana = Roman. He'd read SOME books that had nothing to do with science.

He looked back to Ballista, then says, "Well, you might want to find out what those MOUSERs wanted, and why they had to send New York Rush Hour's worth of them."

He fired a webline, also up to a rooftop, and yanks HARD to propel himself upward, waving to Ballista and the...

Hey, where'd the turtle go?

Artemis has posed:
Stopping briefly, she looks back at Spidey and shakes her head, "Nothing that concerns you." She then leaps easily to the top of a nearby building and starts off back the way she came.